CLINTON, S.C. – Closing out their pre-Big South home schedule hammering the aspect of the game this group does best (i.e. tremendous defensive fortitude and stifling pitching), the Presbyterian College softball squad atoned for a shutout loss at the hands of Queens six days ago by handing the Royals their own medicine in the first half of Saturday's doubleheader (3-0), finishing off the sweep in the second act by a 5-3 margin to reach 17 wins on the year.

Game 1 starter Morgan Hess helped the Blue Hose wrangle in their seventh victory of the season wherein the other side failed to account for a run on the scoreboard, passing the baton to freshman twirler Peyton Duncan for the second round in another tightly-thrown performance. PC's overall ERA – already a number inside the nation's top 15 going in – took a step in the right direction over the weekend, now resting at 1.40.

Jumping to 14-3 when playing in their own backyard, the Blue Hose gets set for a five-game road swing definitively grabbing their confidence back by layering 18 hits throughout the DH, spreading the offensive wealth around considerably to complement a headstrong bullpen effort yet again.
 
NOTABLES
- When looking at both games put together, head coach David Williams' lineup displayed seven batters to connect at least twice against the Royals, carried by nine (three each) from catcher Lath Freeman, shortstop Layna Johnson, and centerfielder Gracie DeCuir. While trailing in the bottom of the 4^th of the second outing, Freeman delivered her third home run ball of the year and the team's 15^th swing that floated over the fence.

- Four different Blue Hose members zeroed in on a double across the sweep including Freeman, as newbie Blair Darby, Hess, and Kaitlyn Tucker added to the fun of the catcher's red-hot Game 2 with extra-base connections of their own. Presbyterian rattled off nine hits and five scores against Royals' starter Autumn Courtney in the day's second bout, silencing a promising freshman pitcher who had only taken one L in seven appearances prior to Saturday.

- In consideration for her finest showing of 2023 – at least on par with a 14-K shutout over Bellarmine during opening weekend – Hess only let three foes reach base out of 25 at-bats in the opener, already the fourth time over her second collegiate season that she walked just one over an entire game. The sixth time this semester and the 20^th time in her career going the full distance, Hess provided a perfect template for Duncan to step right in and give a similarly-fearsome stat line, striking out five, also walking only one, and letting a sole earned run slip by.

- Presbyterian advanced to a record of 16-1 this season when either ahead or tied at the end of four innings, moving Williams just five wins away from hitting 100 since taking over the job four years back. The Blue Hose starting pitcher has been able to stay in the circle the whole way in all but four of their 22 encounters.
 
GAME 1 – Presbyterian (16-5) def. Queens (8-8), 3-0
- The majority of PC's work (at least offensively) was complete with just one frame in the books, surging ahead by a deuce after Freeman rifled the first of three individual RBI on the day in the game's third at-bat. Two plays later, DP Kendall Owens brought the senior around the diamond with an infield hopper, setting the pressure on the Royals to respond.

- Queens never could muster up an answer to Hess' continuous goodwill in the spotlight, sending 15 straight batters away empty-handed before the visitors finally managed their first hit in the top of the 5^th. It wouldn't amount to any longstanding effect, opening the door for freshman Jenna Borkey to extend a sequence of what is now four straight games with a score as a pinch runner, doing so in Game 1 off of an RBI-base hit by Johnson in the 6^th.
 
GAME 2 – Presbyterian (17-5) def. Queens (8-9), 5-3
- While finding a little more fight from the Royals in the two-parter's second act, it wouldn't phase coach Williams' crew despite a potentially-disastrous 3^rd inning. Once Freeman made it two straight opening innings with a run scored (sending home DeCuir on a double), Queens opted for five consecutive sacrifice bunts with two errors sprinkled in during the aforementioned hectic 3^rd, putting PC at a deficit for the first time in 15 innings.

- That's all the motivation Freeman needed to launch her solo homer in the bottom of the 4^th, the beginning of a four-run burst from the home side that bled into the next stanza. Of PC's 15 total dingers, six of them have occurred from the hands of a lead-off batter, gifting Freeman her sixth multi-hit game of the year – a mark that trails only Owens for the team's top honors in that regard.

- DeCuir's second run of the outing and ninth of the season (a figure that five other players on the squad have reached) wrapped up PC's mid-game flurry that the Royals never recovered from, minus a 6^th-inning score that pushed the final to a more respectable clip.

- Albeit on a smaller sample size when compared to Hess or Jenna Greene, Duncan has solidified herself as the third piece to Presbyterian's potent pitching gang, progressing her earned-run average to 1.24 in 34 full frames. Already with two shutouts in her back pocket, the North Carolina product ranks inside the country's top 20 lowest ERA's among true freshmen.
 
UP NEXT
- One of the most important contests of the 2023 slate awaits the Blue Hose next Wednesday as the team prepares for its final nonconference stretch, traveling to Columbia to battle the South Carolina Gamecocks at 6:00 p.m. The fourth all-time meeting in the series will be streamed live on SEC Network +.

- USC holds one of the most impressive resumes of any team not to be featured in any of the three major D-I softball polls approaching a huge three-game set with #15 LSU currently in progress, only tasting defeat twice in 23 games beside a 12-1 mark at home.

- Coincidentally, that lone Columbia loss came against Stetson following the Hatters' dramatic victory over the Blue Hose 48 hours earlier, a result that snapped a 14-game South Carolina winning streak. Since then, the Gamecocks have reeled off seven straight W's before locking horns with the Bayou Bengals.